228 
BIRD MIGRATIONS AND MOVEMENTS INSIDE 
LIVERPOOL. 
ERIC HARDY 
The cry that the spreading of houses and suburbia is driving 
all our birds out of town, and to decreasing numbers, is one 
that needs contradiction, and particularly that type of accusa- 
tion that declares the inner streets of big cities, and especially 
the slums, are devoid of all variety of wild birds as permanent 
visitors, with the exception of the inevitable Cockney house 
sparrow and a certain number of starlings and domestic 
pigeons. 
Observations one has carried out at a birds’ sanctuary 
formed in the middle of Liverpool slums and some eight miles 
from open country, reveal many interesting sidelights on the 
way birds are taking to city conditions, despite the city 
building new housing areas on its outskirts more than any 
other town, and the varying ways of birds in a big city. No 
doubt, for mere pleasure a bird sanctuary would be more 
profitable in a country valley than a city slumland, but the 
conditions under which the present sanctuary is situated 
might be described as almost unparalleled for the study of 
the way birds take to city conditions. The Liverpool Cathe- 
dral Wild Birds’ Sanctuary was established in the St. James’ 
Cemetery, a disused quarry about fifteen hundred feet in 
length and about one hundred yards in width, in the spring 
of 1927, when berry -bearing bushes were planted, and nest- 
boxes, feeding-tables, drinking and bathing fountains were 
established, there already being a natural spring in the 
cemetery, and two copses of trees, mostly elder and rowan, 
at each end. Since then, food of typical bird-sanctuary 
kind, bread crumbs, nuts, fruit, bacon rind (as much as three 
pounds on winter days) of about ten pounds, is placed on the 
tables each morning and afternoon. The sanctuary is sur- 
rounded by dense slums and is a mile from a city park, 
forming the only natural bird attraction in the centre of the 
city, where it acts as a trap or lure to migrating birds and 
those roaming about the city. 
As soon as the sanctuary was established there began a 
noticeable change in the bird life of the cemetery, and one 
made regular observations, and when recently this effect was 
visible on the bird life of the neighbouring streets, one under- 
took a day-to-day census during autumn, winter and early 
spring, when the numbers of all birds with the exception of 
house -sparrows, were counted, especially after a sudden change 
in the weather, and note kept of the temperature, direction of 
wind, humidity and the rising or falling of the barometer. 
In no case was a bird-count preserved when there was any 
noticeable range of doubt in the number. 
The Naturalist 
